DawnL

Daphne went to a birthday party for one of her gymnastics teammates this weekend. She doesn't know any of these girls outside of gymnastics, but she wanted to go, as they are friends during class. It was a slumber party, but I didn't feel that I knew the family well enough to just let her stay the night. There aren't many places I would let any of my kids stay the night, I'm just kinda picky that way, I guess. So, Daphne just stayed until 9:30.

when I went to pick her up, the girls were all in the tent in the backyard. As soon as Daphne heard me, she flipped out, and came running up the deck stairs to me, crying. I guess she didn't have that great of a time. There were a lot of girls she didn't know, and they did makeup, and she didn't really want anything on her face. she stubbed her toe bad enough to need a bandaid, but she was taken aback when no one helped her put it on or anything. She fell off the trampoline because there was no surrounding net, and at the end, in the tent, she said everyone had someone to talk to but her.

Now, Daphne's somewhat sensitive, so I'm sure it wasn't as horrible as she made it sound. But if she was bothered, she was bothered. There is nothing wrong with her feelings.

The mom at the party didn't seem to know what to do with such an emotional display. Fine by me. glad I came to pick her up.

At gymnastics today, the mom asked if Daphne had been okay. I told her Daphne was fine, but mentioned that she had been tired, and that she didn't know everyone. I happened to mention that Daphne had fallen off the trampoline, and this mom was absolutely insistent that no one had fallen off the trampoline. "We watched everyone very carefully, and she did NOT fall off the trampoline!"

Uh, so the mom's calling my daughter a liar then? I had to bite my tongue not to say that. she also said, after we had left the party, that she and her dh thought Daphne had been so emotional at pickup, as a sort of display for me. That really bugged me, too.

But near the end of gymnastics tonight, was the real kicker. I was talking about Jeran, and what a handful he has always been. I mentioned how, when he was 2.5, I had him walking around with us while school supply shopping. When he was getting too rowdy, I told him, "Back into the cart." and he ran off. They found him within 60 seconds out in the Target parking lot.

Well, this mom actually had the audacity to say to me, "That's why I never let my kids out of the cart when they were that age. They can scream all they want, I would never let them out, for just that reason."

Well, excuse me, miss perfect parent!! It just galls me to no end how parents with easy, compliant children (and this one even has all girls, of course!) think that their kids are that way because of their perfect parenting skills!! Sorry, honey, you just have good genes! Get on your knees, thank the good Lord, and butt your ignorant, condescending little tushie out of my biz-ness!

HHMMPPHH!!!!